positions. This character may not display correctly in some fonts. The dot should not appear in all four positional forms and the initial and medial forms should join with following character. In other words the initial and medial forms should look exactly like those of a dotless bāʾ while the isolated and final forms should look like those of a dotless nūn. There is no hamzah in rasm writing, including hamzah-on-the-line (i.e., hamzah between letters). At the time when the i‘jām was optional, letters deliberately lacking the points of i‘jām: , , , , , , , , — could be marked with a small v-shaped sign above or below the letter, or a semicircle, or a miniature of the letter itself (e.g. a small س to indicate that the letter in question is س and not ش), or one or several subscript dots, or a superscript hamza, or a superscript stroke. These signs, collectively known as ‘alāmātu-l-ihmāl, are still occasionally used in modern Arabic calligraphy, either for their original purpose (i.e. marking letters without i‘jām), or often as purely decorative space-fillers. The small ک above the kāf in its final and isolated forms was originally ‘alāmatu-l-ihmāl, but became a permanent part of the letter. Previously this sign could also appear above the medial form of kāf, instead of the stroke on its ascender. Examples Among the historical examples of Rasm script are the Kufic Blue Qur'an and the Samarkand Qurʾan. The latter is written almost entirely in Kufic rasm. The following is an example of Rasm from Surah Al-Aʿaraf (7), Ayahs 86 & 87, in the Samarkand Qur'an: Digital examples Compare the Basmala (), the beginning verse of the with all diacritics and with the rasm only. Note that when rasm is written with spaces, spaces do not only occur between words. Within a word, spaces also appear between adjacent letters that are not connected, and this type of rasm is old and not used lately. The sentence may not display correctly in some fonts. It appears as it should if the full Arabic character set from the Arial font is installed; or one of the SIL International fonts Scheherazade or Lateef; or Katibeh. Examples of Common Phrases See also Kufic Abjad numerals History of the Arabic alphabet Qiraʾat Modern Arabic mathematical notation Book Pahlavi, an Iranian script with similar graphemic convergence. References External links Some pages from the